Chapter Text
Rudo runs for the door to his home, excited to tell Regto what happened today, but when he sets foot over the threshold his heart stops. Regto's body lays lifeless on the ground, painfully familiar in a way.
But different, this time, is who's over him. It's not a masked figure...a so called "angel."
It's Rudo. It's himself holding that knife, but when the other Rudo makes eye contact with him there's a sudden change. Instead of standing in the door as a helpless observer Rudo is now over his father, covered in blood and holding the knife, still dripping red onto Regto.
"No!" Rudo screams, kicking off his blanket and looking around frantically.
A nightmare. It was just a nightmare.
A nightmare that made Rudo sick to his stomach, and left him in a cold sweat. His heart is still racing and he feels in danger despite being safe in his room at HQ.
The knock on his door only scares him worse, "You good, kid?" coming through clear as day.
Enjin sounds tired, but there's a clear worry in his voice, too.
"I'm fine, I just rolled out of bed," Rudo lies.
He doesn't need to bother the others with this. It's his problem, not theirs.
Enjin idles by the door for a moment, Rudo can see him shifting by the shadow peaking under his door, but he walks away after a moment, "Gonna put your butt in a crib you keep doing that."
Rudo lays back down, staring blankly at the ceiling, he can't handle falling back into that nightmare.
Not tonight, at least.
Another knock on his door startles Rudo, annoying him in the process.
"I already said--"
Rudo is cut off by his door flying open, Guita letting herself in and climbing into Rudo's bed, clinging to him and shaking like a leaf.
"Guita?" Rudo blinks a few times, surprised, "Did something happen? Are you okay?"
Guita shakes her head quickly, a whine squeaking out of her as she clings closer to him.
"What's wrong?"
Rudo pushes her away far enough to see that it doesn't look like she's hurt, but her onesie could very well hide a lot of injuries...
"You have to get it, Rudo!"
"Get what? Is there something in HQ?"
Guita just whines again, clinging onto Rudo harder.
"I can't get anything if you don't-"
Rudo's cut off by his bed shaking, and another smaller figure grabbing onto him, pulling on his shirt like they're trying to steal it.
"Dear? Seriously, guys, what's going on?"
"They're in my room, you gotta get them!"
Rudo sighs, pushing both of them off of him, "I'll go check Guita's room, you two stay here I guess..."
He hesitates for a moment, deciding to grab an old rake from his collection of trash before going to investigate. Better to be prepared...
Guita's room is on the other end of the hallway, the door left hanging open, a green nightlight filling the darkness.
He peaks inside, and besides toys that look like they've been stitched up more times than Zanka and a kaiju built out of things Guita clearly pilfered from around HQ there's nothing scary in the room. More books than he expected, but even when he flips on the main light all that changes is he can see the sleeping bag practically kicked under the bed, probably by Dear when he saw whatever Guita saw.
Which is gone now.
And not much scares Dear or Guita, so whatever's loose in HQ has to be worse than everything Rudo has seen on the ground since arriving...
"Just what I needed..." Rudo lets his head fall with a defeated sigh.
After a moment Rudo shakes off his defeated attitude.
He's the one they both came to. Not Bro, not Enjin, not even Corvus. That means they trust him to protect them, and that's more important than being worried about what it is.
Turning around he catches Guita and Dear both peaking into the room, Guita holding onto Dear like she's ready to pick him up and run.
"There's nothing in here, guys..." Rudo gestures around the room.
"I saw it! I know I did!" Guita argues, and Dear looks up at her before nodding.
"Were you two watching scary movies before bed?" Rudo asks skeptically.
"No!"
Dear shakes his head.
"And you both saw this thing?"
They both nod.
Rudo looks around again, searching for anything he missed, even something like a blanket or a scarf hung up in a way it could blow around in a draft.
It would help a lot if either of them told him what they saw...well...if Guita would tell him what she saw.
"What's all the--"
Both members of Team Child scream like they were hurt, and Rudo's a moment away from using 3R on the rake in his hands before he recognizes the, now very annoyed, face in front of him.
"Knock it off," Zanka takes the rake, glaring at the younger kids, now fallen on the floor, holding onto one another, "Do any of you know what time it is? What are you even doing?"
"They saw something, and they wanted me to find it..." Rudo explains, almost embarrassed himself for getting so caught up in this all.
Zanka sighs, hard, rolling his eyes, "There's ants in Dear's room, they're probably just in here now, too."
Guita grabs onto Dear tighter, tears welling in her eyes.
"Wait, was that really it?" Rudo blinks a few times, watching Guita give a small nod, "I've seen you try to bite a snake back..."
Zanka gives Rudo his rake back and lifts the kids off the floor, dusting them off, looking completely annoyed the entire time, "Why don't you three camp out in the rec room, I didn't see any there, and Enjin said he'd deal with the ones in the rooms tomorrow."
Before Rudo can protest he's being dragged to the rec room, Guita holding his wrist and Dear pushing him from behind, and Zanka looks all too pleased with himself as he disappears from Rudo's view.
It took some setting up, and help from a very tired seeming Follo, but there's a makeshift tent set up in the rec room, now, complete with three sleeping bags...pushed together so that the younger kids can crowd Rudo easier.
Dear was subtle about it, originally just laying on his back uncomfortably close to Rudo, but now that he's asleep he's rolling onto his side, holding onto Rudo's shirt like a security blanket.
Guita did exactly what Rudo expected and curled up practically on top of him, again, her head on his chest, one her legs hooked over one of his, and an arm reached across Rudo to lay over Dear's hand.
"Rudo?"
"Go to sleep, Guita," Rudo huffs.
He can't believe all of this was over some ants...
"Can I tell you a secret?"
Rudo sighs, "What?"
"You can't get mad."
"I won't get mad...probably."
"You gotta promise."
Rudo grits his teeth, swallowing his annoyance to instead rub Guita's shoulder in an attempt to ease her obvious nerves, "I...promise."
"I didn't see anything..."
"What!?" Rudo covers his mouth when Dear stirs, still asleep, glaring at Guita, who won't look at him now.
"I heard it..."
"Heard what?"
Guita doesn't answer. After a few moments she starts snoring.
Rudo knows she's faking, but he's so bone tired that he doesn't care.
He rubs her shoulder again, hoping he didn't seem too mad when she told her secret.
Impulsively his other hand finds Dear's back to rub gently, too, and slowly he feels himself easing into sleep himself.
Rudo wakes up to obnoxious laughter, and what sounds like an old camera going off.
He sits up abruptly without thinking, dropping Guita's head and yanking Dear's arm with him, waking both of them too.
Their "tent" flap is open, and Enjin and Bro are both standing there, peaking in. Enjin is laughing so hard he's turning red, while Bro tries to hide the camera.
Rudo feels his face turning red as he throws his pillow at Enjin, "Go away, jerk! This wasn't my idea!"
Bro laughs, too, pulling Enjin away and letting the kids have their privacy.
"Rudo..." Guita whines, rubbing her head and pouting.
Dear is already crawling to get out of the tent, looking just as embarrassed as Rudo feels.
Rudo follows him, holding the flap open for Guita.
"You three should clean that up before you go get breakfast," Bro says, still trying to hide his camera behind his back.
Dear grabs the sleeping bags, folding them up to put them back where they found them while Rudo and Guita take down the blankets.
"You didn't tell me what you heard last night," Rudo reminds expectingly.
Guita looks to the adults, already on their way out, before looking back towards Rudo, ducking her head.
"I heard you...it sounded like you were having a bad dream..."